Slashdot Mirror
RFID Tags For The Rich
Greedo writes "While reading this piece about designing 'experiences' in the Globe and Mail, I came across this interesting tidbit: If you're a frequent Prada shopper (and who on /. isn't?), the loyalty card in your wallet or purse contains a RFID tag that announces your arrival in the store. When you encounter a saleswoman, her handheld computer brings up your tastes, buying history, vital statistics and personalized suggestions from in-stock and coming inventory; the handhelds also place orders and book change rooms. Every item for sale bears an RFID tag. The RFID tags are courtesy of IDEO, and their website has a nice write-up of all the RFID-powered stuff at Prada, including the changeroom! I'm guessing this isn't coming to Wal*Mart's changerooms when they implement RFID. (Another write-up can be found here.)"
So what would it take to create a small device to send out random RDIF signals (a 'white noise' generator)?
...of the scene in Minority Report where he walks into The Gap and based on his retina scan is offered another set of pants similar to the ones he's bought there before...
It creeped me out then and it creeps me out now.
What's involved in reading an RFID? Is there a standard on what is on an RFID, with vendor ID's set aside as in Ethernet MAC addresses, or is it just a generic number format like with barcodes?
It would be interesting to get a nice, sensitive, portable RFID antenna hooked up to a laptop and go, uhm, war-walking...
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
I for one like being target based on what I buy. I get a lot of import DVDs from Suncoast. Thus they send me a catalog of movies that are like the ones they know I buy. I fail to understand why thats a bad thing.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
"if Fortune 500 CEOs sought it out to feed their children, the world would follow"
1. learn prada's RFID tags
2. scan random people for them
3. mug the people who have them
Nice simple way to know who's got $$ and who hasn't. Random credit card numbers might be nice if you only want a few hundred from each of them, but oh what a platinum visa might be worth.
I've often thought that when you go into a fast food place (for example), the cash register should customize itself to your preferred menu items. You should be able to say, "I'd like my #6, please" and not have to say, "Big Breakfast, no hash browns, add a side of bacon, medium Diet Coke", and then later have to explain what they did wrong.
It would clearly save money for the retailer, as the ordering process would be quicker and more accurate. It would improve the customer "experience" too.
Instead of having the merchant suggest these items based on your past buying habits (intrusive), you could go to their website to set up your custom choices (say up to 6) and change them as often as you want. The clerks don't need to deal with the fact that everyone's choices are different, as the keys themselves change meaning when your RFID walks up to the register.
It's not what you know they're doing with it -- it's what you don't know about that they're doing with it.
For instance, I heard that Giant [the grocery store chain] made more last year selling data about their customers than in profits from items sold in their store. In some ways, this is good to the customers, as it allows them to find an alternate revenue stream, and keep their prices down.
But it's not spun like that. Hell, in this case, it's not even mentioned, so in my opinion, it's worse than them placing ads on shopping carts. And I've personally been creeped out when they scanned my card before ringing up any merchandice, and of the four coupons their system spat out -- three of them were items I had on the conveyor belt, that had yet to be rung up.
Of course, I didn't like their spin on the cards, either. Probably because they were behind the curve, when I had who knows how many cards for every other business. [book store frequent buyers card, air lines, a couple other grocery stores]. At least with Safeway, the card was an alternative to needing to clip coupons from the book they'd send you each month. And with Kroger, they gave you a little keychain thing, and they guaranteed postage if it was dropped in a mailbox, so they could return your keys to you.
But I'm still not convinced that your health insurance won't go up if you start buying medical supplies and scan your card in. [or cigarettes]
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Being rich and being tracked is something of a resonant cycle. Frequent flyer miles, credit card bonuses, all manner of marketing perks and tie-ins, cobranded water, corporate discounts. Of course, the truly rich have personal shopper proxies, and themselves are not truly tracked - they can afford their privacy. But the "pretty rich", like the 90-98%ile Americans, are on the marketers' radar every minute, induced to report with a steady flow of "freebies" to gain their brand affinity and detect their tastemaking activities. The result is often a global disneyworld, where the only "choices" are designed by the marketers, and the "real world" never peeks through.
--
make install -not war
I wonder if it would be possible to set up a home inventory using RFID tags. Put one on everything you own, then use trianglation to map out the position of everything in your home. Loose your keys? No problem. Just fire up the handheld, connect to the server, run an RF ping and run a search on "keys". I don't fear the misuse of RFID (well, too much) but I don't think many of the people using them really have an idea of how much fun they could be!
If I could get a firm grip on reality, I'd choke it...